Lessons From Listening

Sometimes I sit at my kitchen table, or in my living room and just listen to the neighborhood. I try to stop reading or doing things and be still. It's not easy to do, as my mind has a list of things I could be doing, but I find that it is important to sometimes let my mind drift as I simply listen with a purposeful attentiveness. It's when I do this that my imagination begins to kick in, and the owl is not some background noise, but instead he is hooting a friendly greeting, as a neighbor who has made his home in a nearby tree.

Today, the wind is constant, and at times very gusty. I can thank the tropical storm for that. But that means my wind chimes are playing a lot of music today, and it's beautiful. This morning, the lawn mower was weaving lines across the yard back and forth. A few hours ago, a heavy rain storm came through, strong and short. Now, the sky is clearing and the sun has emerged. 

When I sit with a friend over tea or a meal, I seek to listen to them. I mean really listen, and not just in the sense that I am thinking the whole time about what I am going to say in response. But letting them talk from the heart and be received by an open ear that is listening to their thoughts. As I have gotten older, I have become very aware when someone is not listening to me, and I suspect others get that sense as well. 

I believe that God can use us to simply listen to others, and be that safe place where their thoughts can be sheltered in you. But so much of the time we are not truly listening to the other person.

I am less of a talker, so attentive listening should be (generally) easier for me to implement, but it's the thoughts in my mind that are harder to quiet. I've always had the desire to be a hospitable source for someone to feel cosy and at home. But sometimes, just as I want to be doing several things when I listen to my neighborhood, I need to be still and listen to others in a way that is in the present moment with them, and not try to do multiple things at the same time. Then something amazing happens. They are not just a friend needing to talk about something, they are part of a larger cosmic story of good, and I get to see a part of that.